Ulster Team Championship Finals

The 2002 Ulster Team Championship (usually referred to as the KO Cup) Final was between RVH, the League Championship winners, and Fisherwick, who had lost in the final the previous two years. The essential difference between the two finalists was that the R.V.H. team was made up of regular tournament players. Indeed four of them had played the previous weekend at the Malahide Millennium Tournament. In contrast, their opponents, while all very experienced players, mainly confine their competitive activities nowadays to League matches.

The final was over 2 Rounds. R.V.H. won the toss for colours and elected to have White on boards 1, 3 and 5 in Round 1. On Board 1 Tom Clarke played his trademark Trompowsky Attack, and soon had Kieran Greer in trouble.

6...e5 might be the most solid move in this position.

After 21...Qa4 here is one example of White's possibilities: 22.Nxg7 Bxg7 23.Re7 Bxc3 24.Qh5 and while Black has a few checks mate cannot be avoided;

After 21...Qb5 another possible variation runs 22.Bxg7 Bxg7 23.Nxg7 Kxg7 24.Qc3+ Kg6 25.h5+ Kxh5 26.Rh1+ Kxg5 27.Rg1+ Kh4 28.Qf6+ Kh3 29.Qh6#

If 25...g6 then White can play 26.Nxg6 hxg6 27.h7+ Qxh7 (27...Kxh7 28.Qh1+ Kg8 29.Qh8+ Kf7 30.Qh7+ and mate next move) 28.Rh1 Qe7 29.Rh8+ Kf7 30.Rh7+ Kg8 31.Rxe7 Rxe7 but this may still have been Black's best chance.

A desperate attempt to block off White's dark-squared bishop.

26...g6 fails to 27.Nxg6 Qxd5 28.Nxf8 Kxf8 29.g6

Even better than winning the exchange.

After 28.Nxg6 White threatens h7+ and h8=Q and if Black plays 28...gxh6 29.Nxe5+ leads to a quick mate.

On Board 2 the game between John Cairns and Nicholas Pilkiewicz quickly became very complicated. Eventually a Queen and pawn endgame was reached in which each King was exposed, making it difficult for either player to make progress and a draw was agreed.

After this move the game gets very complicated.

White has two pieces en prise. With his next move he makes it three.

23...b4 might have been tried.

Now White has good chances.

28.fxg6 hxg6 29.Qxg6 looks very strong.

According to Tom Clarke, perhaps the crucial moment in the whole match. Here Cairns, short of time, took the d-pawn with his Queen. Pilkiewicz told him it was an illegal move and Cairns retracted his move and moved his King out of check. It only occurred to Pilkiewicz while he was having his lunch after this game, that he could have asked his opponent to move his Queen to e1.

Draw agreed.

On board 3 Gareth Annesley pressed hard in the late middlegame and endgame, but Tom Alcorn managed to hold out in a Rook and pawn ending despite being under time pressure. David Ruben was always under pressure in his game with the R.V.H. captain Danny Mallaghan and lost on time when a pawn down with a passive position. The board five encounter was a fluctuating struggle. Paul McLoughlin had Rook, bishop and two pawns to Bobby Thompson's Rook and four pawns. However the Fisherwick captain had compensation in an active Rook and he managed to win McLoughlin's bishop. From then it was only a matter of technique.

Although Fisherwick were 2-3 down, they had the advantage of three Whites in Round 2 and were also strengthened by the addition of former Ulster and Irish champion, Ray Devenney, on Board 2. His game with Nicholas Pilkiewicz was probably the most interesting one in the final - a typical King's Indian Defence with White attacking on the queenside and Black pushing his pawns forward on the kingside

For instance Kelly-Paehtz, Wroxham Masters 2002 continued 13...Rf6 14.Kh1 h5 15.cxd6 cxd6 16.a4 Rg6 17.Nd3 Kh8 18.Nb5 a6 19.Na3 g4 20.Nc4 Ng8 21.Nb6 Rb8 22.Nxc8 Qxc8 23.Ra3 Nh6 24.Rc3 Qd7 25.Qc2 Bf6 26.Rc1 Rg8 27.Rc8 Rxc8 28.Qxc8 Qg7 29.Qe6 Nf7 30.Qf5 Bg5 31.Rc8 g3 32.Bb6 gxh2 33.Bf1 Bh6 34.Qxh5 Qf6 35.Nf2 Qe7 36.Ng4 Kh7 37.Qf5+ Kg7 38.Qe6 1-0

Missing Black's next move, though even after 25.Bd3 Black's attack is looking dangerous.

An oversight: 27...Qb7 should have been played.

Although White has won the exchange, the game is still very finely balanced.

30...Qf6 would have regained the initiative.

Black is prepared to let his queenside pawns go and risk all on his kingside attack.

40.Rc7 first might have been better.

After 47...Qxg3 there is nothing White can do:

eg 48.Re4 48...Rh1+ 49.Kxh1 Qh2#

or 48.Kf1 Rh1+ 49.Ke2 Qxe1+ 50.Kd3 Qe3+ 51.Kc2 Rc1#;

although 48.Rg8+ Kxg8 49.Qc8+ Kg7 50.Qg4+ Qxg4 51.fxg4 stops immediate mate, after 51...Bd2 if White attempts to hold on to his only trump, the a-pawn, the net closes again: 52.Ra1 Be3+ 53.Kf1 Bc4+ 54.Ke1 Rh1#)

In the Board 1 encounter Kieran Greer won a pawn due to pressure down the a1-h8 diagonal, but an oversight allowed Tom Clarke to win back the pawn and shortly afterwards a draw was agreed.

This looks a bit too risky. Now Black encounters problems along the a1-h8 diagonal.

Definitely not 19...e4 when 20.Nd5+ wins straightaway.

Surprisingly missing the straightforward tactic.

Draw agreed

On Boards 4 and 5 R.V.H. has switched their players around and this proved successful. Paul McLoughlin, now on Board 4 had a hard-fought draw with Tom Alcorn, while Danny Mallaghan benefited from Bobby Thompson blundering away his Queen.

The final result hinged on the last two games to finish - those on boards 2 and 3. As we have already seen Devenney bested Pilkiewicz and when John Cairns beat Gareth Annesley the score was tied at 5 points each, with Fisherwick triumphing on board count and winning the KO Cup for a record-breaking sixth time.

Tony Parker presents the Ulster Team Championship
trophy to Bobby Thompson, the Fisherwick captain

Bobby Thompson checks out the previous winners,
as Alex Beckett, the Fisherwick secretary, looks on

The Plate competition, for First Round losers in the KO Cup, was first played in 2000. This year's final featured the same two teams who contested the first final - Civil Service and Queen's University. Unfortunately, Fred MacDonald, the Q.U.B. Board 1 was unavailable and even the members of the University team admitted beforehand that they had a very hard task on their hands against a Civil Service team which had 4 players rated over 1800 turning out in Round 1 of the Final.

For Round 2 of the Plate Final Civil Service brought in Sam Moore, Gerald Harvey and David Jackson to replace Esmonde, May and Armstrong. Despite the huge deficit from Round 1, all the Queen's players fought really hard. On board 1 Robin Triggs looked in desperate trouble at one stage on the Black side of a Sicilian, but put up such stern resistance that at the end John Nicholson was probably glad to agree a draw. Boards 2 and 3 both featured Bishop and pawn endings. Jonathan Brown and David Collins agreed a draw when neither player could make further progress, while Ashley Peile lost after blundering a pawn against Sam Moore. Peile was probably the unluckiest player of the Finals - he played really well against two players rated far higher than himself, but in the end had nothing to show for his efforts.

So Civil Service repeated their success of 2000, while Queen's University have had the disappointment of finishing runners-up on all three occasions the Plate has been played. On the first two occasions there was no trophy to present to the winners of the Plate, but that has now been rectified, and a trophy was presented for the first time this year. So new was the trophy, that there hadn't even been enough time to have "Ulster Team Plate" engraved upon it !!

Jonathan Brown, the Civil Service captain, presented
with the new trophy for the Plate competition

Alongside the two team competitions, there was a Handicap competition held over seven Rounds. Handicapping was on a time basis. Each game was of 30 minutes duration, and if players were rated within 200 points of each other they each had 15 minutes. However if the difference in ratings was between 201 and 400 then the lower rated played got 20 minutes to his opponent's 10, while if the difference was over 400 rating points the respective times were 25 and 5 minutes.

First prize went to Desmond Moreland, who only dropped a half-point to Ian Davis. Second was Stephen Scannell, who not surprisingly found getting only 5 minutes against Moreland in Round 5 beyond him. If their ratings had been one point closer it would have been a much more manageable 20-10 !! Third prize went to Damien Lavery.

UCU May 2002 Handicap Crosstable

Desmond Moreland receives his prize for
winning the Handicap tournament